Washington state Attorney General Rob McKenna, who Savage has decided looks like a trans person and as such should be mocked for that.

Having grown used to “Ann Coulter is a tranny” slurs from the folks on the left for the past decade, this kind of behaviour strikes me as typical of many cissexuals who otherwise would consider themselves progressive. Typical, too, are the responses to trans frustration: the angry tranny trope, trans people need to get a sense of humour, to focus on the “real fight,” and all of those other derails that only aim to avoid responsibility for the privileged and phobic comment.

I am sure Rob McKenna’s policies are worth criticism, but if that’s the case critique policy. Savage’s response weakens any real criticism of McKenna because the right can now point to this stupid diversion. Further, it fractures response to McKenna by alienating a segment of people who might agree but find mocking trans people to make a political point reprehensible. So Savage isn’t just transphobic, he’s a shitty political activist, too.

Past initial outrage what will the response be, I wonder? I’m expecting Savage and his supporters to dig in, that’s nothing new, but this is a hard point to gloss over for those trying to remain ‘impartial.’ I’ve heard a lot of lip service from cis allies over the years, but I’ve rarely seen them give up something they like consuming – I’ve had people flat out tell me they know Savage is transphobic but they’re going to read him anyway. The kind of transphobia Savage engaged in by making those comments about McKenna has real life implications for trans people. I wonder how many more passes he’ll get.

Thanks for posting about this. A commenter on the thread noted that Mr. McKenna is already being harassed and questioned about his supposed trans status. Hilarious, amirite? Maybe he’ll get death threats and nasty letters.

God, I hate Dan Savage. I refuse to read anything he writes or click on any link featuring his opinions. He is privilege porn of the worst variety. I can’t stand it when otherwise progressive people support people like him, especially when they openly admit he’s a divisive bigot but continue reading his shit nonetheless. He needs his soapbox taken away. Like now.

“In ’08 Sloggers helped raised more than $5,000 to pay for the funeral of Duanna Johnson, a transwoman and a victim of police brutality who was murdered in Memphis, Tennessee. According to Johnson’s family, half of the money raised for Johnson’s funeral came from donors in Seattle after a call for donations appeared on Slog. Let’s see what we can raise for a trans kid who’s still alive, shall we? (Oh, and folks who want me to apologize for this: Okay, I will—after we raise at least 2K for Juin and his family. Otherwise, meh, I’ll just keep hating on trans people like the raging anti-trans beegoat that I am.) “

I have a better idea: Why not stop making stupid comments and continue to raise money for trans causes? That way, you won’t sound like a jerk and you’ll be helping trans people, which is of course your highest priority.

It still upsets me that I had to quit reading Bitch PhD (and Unfogged, as Bitch PhD herself kept hanging out there) because I could not stand the transphobia.

(I did attempt to discuss the issue with Bitch PhD herself by e-mail, but the responses I got from her actually upset me even worse than the initial transphobic joke and refusal to apologize.)

That cisgendered people do tend to assume that it’s perfectly okay to make transphobic jokes because trans people aren’t real people (Bitch PhD offered to apologize to me, which as I pointed out was kind of pointless – I wasn’t the person she was being offensive to, I wasn’t among the group of people she was being nasty to) – or because trans people just oughta accept that there’s something inherently funny in being transgendered – it’s a whole muddle of crap, because at the root of the conviction that it’s OK to mock people for being (or appearing to be) trans, there is something fundamental about gender/sexual orientation. Sure there are women who “look butch”, there are men who “look girly” – and there are trans people who pass perfectly, imperfectly, or not at all, as cisgendered.

But where the root of the feeling that BitchPhD expressed – that Dan Savage expresses – comes from, is the certainty that there just is a “right way” for gender to be expressed. The mockery of boys with long hair for being “girlish” – or the mockery of gay men for taking it up the ass – is the same kind of mockery. Dan Savage is effectively joining forces with the homophobes by mocking a man for looking “trans”, just as BitchPhD last year was joining forces with the sexists for mocking Ann Coulter for looking “mannish” or being “a cunt”.

But I do find transphobic jokes peculiarly horrible. Because the point of the jokes is not just to police women for not conforming to the patriarchal norms of “how women should look”, though that is clearly one of their functions. Nor is it just to make clear to women that, whatever our politics, it’s what we look like that’s really important, though that too is clearly one of their functions. The kind of person who would make fun of Ann Coulter for “looking mannish” is the same kind of person who would try to erase Sylvia Rae Rivera from the gay liberation movement because a trans woman isn’t the kind of hero you want remembered from the Stonewall Riots. Bigoted jokes are policing jokes – warning people who don’t conform to the norm what can happen to them if they don’t behave.

I stopped reading him ages ago because of his seriously gyno- and bi-phobic remarks…. then he had a change of heart and seemed to really try to not be horribly offensive to cis-women, lesbians, and bisexual folks. So I started perusing his column again.

aaaand then a couple years ago he started really turning on the transphobia and and I checked out again. He doesn’t seem particularly repentant on this issue. I’ll still listen in on his podcast now and again, but I can never get through a whole one… it’s like, everything’s going along swimmingly, he’s giving sound advice, and then something will come out of his mouth that’s just… off. Judgmental, or bigoted, or hurtful. Something fat-phobic, or transmisogynist. Even the way he’s been pushing non-monogamy squicks me out, and I’m poly! He keeps presenting non-monogamy as basically the one true way, and saying that most people in monogamous relationships are either unhappy or deluding themselves. Bullfuckingshit.

And then this… blog? Whatever it is. It’s just so godawful. It really, really shows that he just Doesn’t Get It when it comes to trans and gender issues. Or he just doesn’t care. Either way, ugh.

At least the comments section is overwhelmingly full of people calling him out on this shit.

Not only is he bi, trans, and gyno-phobic… Considered a “gay hero” he routinely knocks “flyover country”. Only the half dozen largest cities in the US are acceptable for gays to live in according to him… as if concentrating ourselves into only a handful of legislative district is the way to get ahead. Idiot.

And this is coming from an out 30’s partnered gay guy in the reddest state in the union in a town of less than 1000. We and our gay, lesbian, and open friends (that live here too SHOCKER!) love it here.